Sunday, February 20, 2011

I attend many continuing education seminars every year, not only to learn better techniques and technology, but better ways of serving our patients, you know customer service. That can be how we answer the phone, how the staff answer questions, does the customer feel his needs were met, etc. This past weekend I heard Dr. Nido Qubein and Scott McKain; two awesome speakers. They are not dentists, but they understand the aspects of a dental practice that pertain to the person at the other end of the mirror--the patient. In Pediatric Dentistry that also includes the parents, you know the ones paying the bill.

In Pediatric Dentistry, you learn the how: how to do a filling, how to prepare a crown, how to manage anxiety and safely sedate and treat a patient. Once you are out of school, you hang up your shingle and start a dental "practice," otherwise known as a "business". There are several principles that apply to all businesses. Great service is not only providing great dental care, and not just great "customer service," but providing such an exceptional experience so that patient will never want to go anywhere else. Wouldn't you like to go to a dental practice where, when you leave, you say, "That was so awesome, I can't wait to take Johnny back again". What? You said the dentist? Well, I have to say that even though we may not achieve it 100% of the time, we really do want to provide a wonderful experience in addition to great dentistry. It's not an easy task. It's hard to be all things to all people. I mean, kids are unpredictable and we may not always be on the ball. However, most of the time we strive to hit a home run. We have had kids not want to leave our office they are having so much fun.

These speakers not only informed, but inspired me to improve on the wonderful practice we already have here at APDA. I promise we will do our very best to serve you and your family. We went into Pediatric Dentistry because we really do love these children.

No matter what business you are in, you can learn from these great speakers. If you ever have the chance to hear these guys speak (click the links on their names above), do not miss them. They know their stuff.

8 comments:

I definitely agree with you there, Great service is not only providing great dental care, and not just great "customer service," but providing such an exceptional experience so that patient will never want to go anywhere else. Very positive thought. And yes, you need to give the satisfaction of the customer so that they will keep on coming back just for your service. Thanks for sharing.

Customer service should always be a priority. Especially in a service based industry like dentistry. We always aim to under-promise and over-deliver and that makes for a great result and a loyal patient base! Thanks for the great post! Dentist Los Angeles

Ok, in the interest of "customer service", I am now no longer going to post any comments no matter how well intentioned that contain a link to some website. Do not post your dental practice, product or other spam link in the text. Up till now, I have occasionally posted comments with links to dental related sites, but no more as it has become obvious spam posting services have decided this blog worthy to post their worthless links.

If you are a real person (patient, doctor, or interested reader) you may post reasonable comments. I owe it to the readers not to waste their time reading nonsense comments.

Dr. Brandon, Sorry for leaving this note under comments, but I was not sure how else to contact you. Having a pediatric dentistry blog, I wanted to see if you would consider blogging about or linking to a free dentistry game for kids I recently published. Its called Stanley Smiles and is available at http://www.stanley-smiles.com

As we all know, customer service can be tough. I think it takes a special skill to do it right.

Perhaps "listening" is the most important aspect. I've seen many other dentists who fail to listen to their patients. This is a problem because many patients don't necessarily understand dentistry. Informing customers is key.

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About Me

Pediatric Dentist,
Past President-Huntsville Madison County Dental Society, Former Chief of Dentistry-Huntsville Hospital, Adjunct Assistant Professor- Univ. of Alabama School of Dentistry, In practice for over 20 years with Alabama Pediatric Dental Associates and Orthodontics, Blogger, Author.

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I am available for certain speaking engagements. Topics may include Pediatric Dentistry (obviously), Social Media and Blogging, Practice Management and Business Development, Practice Transitions, and others. Yes, usually there would be a fee, especially if I have to travel or take time off my regular schedule. If you are interested, contact me at our office, via Twitter, Facebook or on this blog.